Georgia receives secondary violation, no punishment

July 30, 2011 at 8:56 PM EST - Updated June 24 at 9:56 PM

ATHENS (WTVM) - The SEC has deemed Mark Richt's impermissible text messages to the father of a recruit, a Level 1 Secondary Violation, but won't issue the standard minimum punishment because they found "no content" to the messages.

In May, Richt received a text from the father of Harris County Defensive End Jordan Jenkins. Ron Jenkins was texting asking for camp dates. Richt says in an attempt to forward the text to a recruiting coordinator he responded to Jenkins, a violation of NCAA rules. The NCAA prohibits coaches from texting parents until the day after a letter of intent is signed. Richt immediately self-reported the violation.

The SEC has made the recommendation to the NCAA to not punish the Bulldogs. The recommendation goes hand in hand with Commissioner Mike Slive's comments at SEC Media days calling for more relaxed rules in regards to texting, Facebook and twitter messages with recruits.

Georgia has yet to hear a final ruling from the NCAA, but expects the governing body to confer with the SEC.